Unsignalized intersections: Can ITS offer improved efficiency and safety?

Majority of intersections in the United States are unsignalized. The total number of crashes at unsignalized intersections is higher than the number of crashes at signalized intersections. While stop signs have been a common safety treatment for unsignalized intersections, they also introduce additional travel delays, fuel consumption and emissions. In some cases, stop signs induce increased safety hazards. Until recently, unsignalized intersections and stop signs have mostly been seen as design problems using traditional traffic engineering approaches. This paper studies the characteristics of stop signs, their unintended impacts, and potential improvements by ITS technologies.